Mixing a Documentary in Pro Tools - Dipped and Undipped Stems

[@videosound20]

I have been working for a 20 years with tv content as sound mixer, and never thought about dipped and undipped stems at all. Make em separately and the same time!) Thomas, you are a genius.

[@JamesClark1991]

Thanks Thomas, really interesting to see your workflow. It's hard to find good audio-related content like this on KZbin!

[@ThomasBoykin]

Thanks CJ. Glad to help.

[@Sequential01]

I had a question on routing but I figured it out. Thanks for another great video

[@muchosmitos2000]

Gracias! estos videos mostrando tu workflow son de las mejores clases que tuve! thanks! Diego from Argentina

[@ThomasBoykin]

Gracias amigo. Solo quiero mostrarles algunas tecnicas para ayudarlos en el trabajo.

[@VivekTheMesmerizer]

Thanks a ton for this film mixing crash course kind of playlist. A request- Please make similar course for 5.1 mixing too likewise.

[@noahkovalick4884]

Thank you for making this, Thomas!

[@StarsHoundProd]

I found the OTF tracks is a very good idea ;-) I will try in my own workflow !

[@Matchat11]

Hello your content is oustanding man! I wich you could do a video on how you set up the routing of all that since the dipping component seems to be trickier than the routing you've shown for a narrative program mix. thx for everything! Mat

[@kenjon93]

Straight great content again! Much love Thomas.

[@romanponomarenko3099]

Thanks, Thomas! Great explanation!

[@kisszsoltlaszlo]

Thanks for making these wonderful tutorials!

[@zachmatchem]

Hey Thomas! I just bought the template, but still had questions about how the routing works. Have you thought about making a video explaining it?

[@ThomasBoykin]

I have thought about it, I just lack the time. I’m currently mixing one show and dialog editing another one.

[@ga558732]

Hi Thomas! Thanks for the video, now I’m trying to follow your session to build my own documentary template. Here I have 1 question. Why there aren’t a 5.1 and a Stereo output for Dialogue stem? I don’t have many experiences to documentary. Does documentary have different stems requirements other than the DME stems?

[@ThomasBoykin]

A lot of US docs require a mono dialog stem. If the spec sheet allows for 5.1 go for it!

[@todoeSSonido]

How about Thomas, thank you first of all for the content, it is appreciated. One question, I use pro tools but not HD, not 5.1 as in your template. It works the same for me, can I modify it for Stereo? Unfortunately I am not in the professional world so a lot of channels are not necessary, because I present for festivals and for short films on KZbin. Greetings,

[@ThomasBoykin]

Yes stereo should be fine! At lower budget levels you don't need all of these deliverables either, often just a mix and stems.

[@mihamusic2243]

Hi Thomas! Thank you for share 🙏🏻. What audio monitors Do you use ? which do you recommend to start? Thank you!

[@ThomasBoykin]

JBL is a good budget option!

[@mihamusic2243]

@@ThomasBoykin thank you so much!

[@SixMissing]

Amazing video, Thomas. Thanks for sharing. I have a question regarding all the stem prints - obviously I know it's best practice to print into the session so you can review that final time, but have you thought about making these audio tracks into Master tracks so you could potentially offline bounce through them and save a little time? In the branded content world I like to find every second I can, haha. Once again, amazing and useful stuff!

[@ili6065]

Thank you for yor detailed video. There`re some usefull things to know.

[@mcproducciones4310]

Great vídeo as always man 👌

[@stevegeorge7773]

This is very informative and looks useful. Question: Have you, with the downloadable on your site have a note that explains some of the elements and perhaps the ones you didn't for reference?

[@ThomasBoykin]

Nope. But I'm thinking about doing a Zoom class to cover that stuff.

[@godotsilke4135]

@@ThomasBoykin wish you did. I'd pay for it

[@videosound20]

Magic is happening...now i am watching this video when here is the same time on my watch😂 now is 12:25

[@Sequential01]

Hi. Sorry I haven't done a lot of doc work and I'm slightly confused. When you are talking about undipped stems, do you mean undipped for both VO and any sync dialogue? And you don't do any volume automation on the unit tracks at all for the whole mix? Find it difficult to understand how to create a mix without automation. - just static clip gaining? I would generally use the unit tracks to mix everything minus the VO, so automating the volume on the music tracks. Then use a dipper to mix in the VO. Obviously this means that the 'undipped' stems will have dips for sync sound (generally ok, no?) but not for any VO. Sorry if I'm missing the obvious

[@ThomasBoykin]

Some specs ask for no dips for narration or interview clips. They dub the interviews! So you have to do the volume automation on a bus.

[@Sequential01]

@@ThomasBoykin thanks for the reply. I guess in that case you can still do some unit track volume automation to level out the music and fade in and out. Then do all dipping on busses. I'll give it a try anyway. But also maybe in the case of a completely undipped mix I would try just doing 2 separate mixes. Cheers

[@Paulkruz1]

Yesssss thank you

[@ThomasBoykin]

Thank you for the “thank you” boss!

[@r3cca00]

Do you not split the dialogue type clips, like conversation between 2 characters etc, into a separate dialogue track? I saw you mentioned you would put them in OTF tracks in the video.

[@ThomasBoykin]

This is for a documentary. For those type of sequences I would use otf. Otherwise they would go on interview tracks.

[@tyrellesound4725]

Hey Thomas I had a question: Couldn't you side chain the M&E to the VO? That way when you mute the VO you'll have an undipped M&E?

[@ThomasBoykin]

Yes but it requires multiple passes that way

[@SingToTheDusk]

Maybe i missed something but how do you keep the tracks in a drop down folder like that?

[@ThomasBoykin]

There are folder tracks in Pro Tools Ultimate now. At first I did not use them, but it's become useful to me.